Aug '12 Big Island Trip - Part I

Some time in the Spring we were trying to figure out our summer vacation plans. We already knew we would do a short trip to Tahoe soon after they got out of school. But we didn't know anything beyond that. We didn't want to go to So Cal and do the amusement parks since we had done amusement parks during Spring Break. So, we talked about Hawaii.

We looked into tickets, and the cheaper fares were to the Big Island, not Oahu where we normally go. We reasoned the Big Island might be good because Hilton has timeshares there (with dolphins) and the kids hadn't been to the Big Island yet, at least at an age they'd remember. We took Maile there when she was 8 mths old when a group of us went to the Big Island before a wedding in Kauai.

We wanted to time the trip to fall during the 2 weeks Mathis did not have school, but it was cheaper to fly out the last day of his school, so that's what we did.. We got in early afternoon, went to Kona for lunch and food supplies, and then picked up Hansel's mom, who was joining us for the trip.

One thing we noticed right away is all the lava rock. It's like being on a different planet. I had forgotten about that from before.

For this trip we had to book two different properties. The first place we stayed was big, including the bedrooms, and it was right next to one of the pools, which the kids were happy about. Not a fancy pool with slides but a pool nonetheless. Even though this property was part of Hilton's timeshare family, it did not include access to the main Hilton resort there, which has the dolphins and the fancy pools, and the lagoon.

We looked into touristy things to do since we thought Hansel's mom would like that. After looking up things to do, Hansel discovered two things -- the volcano was really far (3 hrs away by car) and that there wasn't much to do sightseeing-wise outside of the volcano. We decided to skip the volcano altogether. So, the next day we planned to do the free petroglyph tour in the morning and then in the afternoon after Mathis' nap go to a state park and do a popular drive.

The petroglyph tour was neat but hot since there wasn't any shade. Mathis, thankfully, did a good job walking most of it.

After Mathis' nap, we had a little snack and then headed out to drive up the coast and check out a state park with remnants and artifacts of an old Hawaiian village. When we got there we found out that it closes at 4p. It was around 4:30. So we continued driving up the coast and then we drove down this mountain road, which is supposed to be scenic. It was nice because the scenery and terrain would change. We stopped at an outlook, where we took a family photo there. The kids had fun with the dead grass while Hansel set up the camera.

 

 

 We stopped in Waimea for dinner. After dinner, Hansel took a left out the parking lot when we were supposed to go right. When we realized this, we were approaching this large, all-wood playground. Something one doesn't normally see, and the kids noticed it right away. They wanted to stop and play. It was getting dark and it was kind of drizzly, but we stopped anyway. It's cool the places you find when you least expect it.